Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Sichuanese dried fried green beans. i.e. 'gan bian si ji dou' 干煸四季豆, are delicious with rice or just with beer. The beans are tender sweet and a bit spicy with yummy salty bits of dried shrimps and Sichuan preserved vegetable (zha chai). Many recipes like to add minced pork (ground pork) I find it unnecessary.

The beans are fried in oil then stir fried. You may be disgusted how oily it can be, but I have a way to remove most of the oil so it is not too bad. Without frying in oil you won't get the authentic taste and texture of the beans.

Here is how I make this if you are interested.

Ingredients: Will make one plateful enough for few people

About 1lb or 450g fresh green beans, trimmed (you can also use flat stringless beans)

about 4 - 5 long dried chilli (or much as you like), deseeded and remove stalks then cut into small pcs and soak for 5 - 10 minutes then drained

about 1 cup of oil for frying

dash of light soy sauce

about 1.5 tbsp of cooking wine

a little black rice vinegar

Method:

After rinsing the beans, make sure to shake off as much excess water as possible. This will prevent oil spitting.

Put oil in wok, heat till just warm then drop in the all the beans. At medium heat gradually heats up the oil while stirring the beans. Continue stirring every 15 - 20 second intervals for about 8 minutes at medium heat or till the beans turning a darker shade of green and the skins look wrinkled

Remove all the beans straight onto a large metal sieve/colander. Immediately rinse with warm tap water to remove as much oil sticking on the beans as possible. Shake to remove excessive water. Put on one side.

Remove frying oil. Leave one tbsp of the frying oil or use fresh oil. Heat then add in all the garlic. chilli, dried shrimps and preserved vegetable. Dry fried for few minutes till very fragrant and the bits are turning slightly browner.

Add in the fried beans. Stir on high heat to remove excess water moisture. Add dash of soy, vinegar and dash of cooking wine. Not too much soy the preserved vegetable and dried shrimp can be quite salty. Stir till all combined.

2 comments:

I have been mad about this dish ever since I lived in Beijing for 3 months a few years ago. (Yes, I realise it isn't a Beijing recipe, but I ate them often there.) I just tried your recipe and it was EXACTLY the way I remembered them. YUM!!! Thanks SO much.Mado